I must give credit to John Kiely, the UK strength coach at the High Performance Center in Birmingham, for writing his letter regarding New Horizons and being critical. His letter was fair and candid to make sure we kept a calm manner and not go crazy like Black Friday at Walmart with new stuff. I think Dr. Issurin’s work has merit, but I will hedge my bets on other work that seems a bit more trustworthy. I am tired of searching for the fountain of youth and no longer wish for searching for pots of gold. The realities is the truth is in front of us with our athletes and our circumstances. We can learn from others, but they must be doing it with clear evidence of them making an impact and not be great by association. So the question is where do to get good information? Energy System Development is important in team sport but who has the answers? I recall in the late 90s one coach shared a powerpoint of his 7 Energy Systems. The next year another coach shared 8 energy systems at a similar clinic. I could not help but think about the evolution of 7 minute abs from the movie There’s Something about Mary. For years I just listened to coaches that had demonstrated an impact on conditioning and things were clear, but now things are now mysterious? I am not saying things are easy but isn’t a process of elimination of NCAA, HS, and real world constraints available for some time now? What is new? Speaking of the number 7, I saw a 7 Foot center powerclean 150k from the floor with great technique. Not good technique but GREAT technique. The same with sub 50.0 300y shuttles and other tests of fitness. It was nice to see that people were not afraid to use what works instead of jumping to the new and better hype. I will put up a reading list of good materials I found to be effective for energy system training.
